Otomen 3

This gets better and better every time I read it.  I honestly can’t tell if it’s a parody of shoujo manga or just reveling greedily and hilariously in the plot and art devices at this point.  There are things that make me laugh with their over-the-top shoujo nature, but on the other hand, the plot of the series is such that these things… well, they fit really nicely, and I enjoy them for more than just the easy gag.  I feel conflicted, like the series might be making fun of me somehow.  I’m pretty sure all the nuances are intentional, though, and that is exactly what makes Otomen magical.

Well, those nuances and the fact that the subplot is that the best friend character is drawing a manga exactly like the one we’re reading for a magazine exactly like Betsuhana, and his characters are just the characters in Otomen with their genders switched to suit each one better.  As I’ve said before, the levels of meta at work here make my head spin.  “Love Chick” makes me feel a little better about liking Otomen so much, because it shows you what the series would look like without its sense of humor and parody, ie totally boring but still shoujo enough to fly.

I want to say that Juta, the manga artist, is my favorite character, since I’ve never seen anyone molest the fourth wall so thoroughly without breaking it.  This volume has a chapter focused on him, and I adored it since it showed both his home situation and exactly what kind of friend to the ladies he is.  I like him a lot more now, since he really does do his best to offer his friendly attentions to as many girls as possible, and both he and the girls seem to love it.  His family situation is suitably nutty, and the crisis point in the story where Asuka steps in makes for an extremely awkward and hilarious exchange between Juta and Asuka at the end of the story.

There’s some slight plot development for the series as a whole, but the fact that the story has technically moved forward doesn’t mean anything significant has changed.  I didn’t mind so much in this volume, since it was full of exactly the type of stories I wanted to see.  The story where the plot development happens was another one I liked, where Asuka and Ryo take a trip to an amusement park.  Ryo drags Asuka through all the scary and extreme rides.  Asuka is too manly to complain, but the entire time he wishes they could ride the carousel and the Love-Love Cups.

A rival character for Asuka is introduced in the last chapter, and I liked him quite a bit.  The boy hates Asuka because Asuka is superior to him at kendo (apparently they are the #1 and #2 ranked kendo practitioners in the country), but the two bond over a girl’s makeover and a power rangers-type live action show.  Alas, they are still rivals as both otomen and kendo practitioners.

I love the art in this series, which is suitably over-the-top when it comes to flowery screentone, sparkles, blushes, and ridiculously girly decorations made by Asuka (Juta is my favorite character, but I cannot deny the appeal of Asuka in all his girly majesty).  Everything looks absolutely perfect.  I also like the way character’s eyes blank out when they are worried, scared, surprised, or what have you.  It’s a lot more comical than other visual effects that might show the same thing, plus I’m pretty sure it’s kind of a throwback to a 70s manga technique.

Also, for the conflict I was feeling between parody and lovingly-portrayed shoujo manga… the cover is exactly what I’m talking about.  It’s the best cover ever.  On one hand, it’s the biggest fairy tale girly stereotype image you’ll ever see, and on the other hand, it ties directly into one of the stories in the volume.  I’m not sure that either of these things has much bearing on what makes it awesome, because without knowing anything about the series or the stories in the volume, I think it would still make me laugh/make me happy to look at.   It makes me think that the series would still be funny if I didn’t know anything about shoujo manga or stories for girls in general.  Or gender roles either, I guess, another big part of the humor.

It… it works as a loving tribute to shoujo manga with the twist of the protagonist being male.  That’s just what it is, and why it works, and why it’s awesome.  It’s executed perfectly in every way from that idea.  There’s not a lot of plot development, but there doesn’t really need to be as long as the variations on the otomen theme keep coming up.  I am officially addicted at this point.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.